Flash of Blue
by Dreams about another world
Summary: Iceland/Liechtenstein. Human AU - How they met and how love came to be. He keeps looking in the corridors for it: A flash of blue.


Yep, it's yet another de-anon from the meme.

**Prompt: **

_Liechtenstein's ribbon gets stuck in a tree. Iceland, being a gentleman (because I could so see him being one to a girl he likes), tries to fetch it, only to fall and knock himself out. Of course, this causes Liechtenstein to go into hysterics. Cue Switzerland coming to save the day and scolding Iceland once he wakes up because he could have always just gotten her a new ribbon instead of Iceland risking his life and being an idiot (not that Switzerland cares or anything. Except he totally does because I can see him growing a soft spot for whoever Liechtenstein is dating after the whole "make her cry and I'll ram this gun up your ass" initiation.)_

_Bonus: Gentle, loving sex to prove to Liechtenstein that he's okay._  
><em>Bonus two: AU, perhaps?<em>

**Comments: **While Iceland/Liechtenstein was not something that I've even thought about before, something in this pairing really hit off in my head and I thought "Hey, this could work!". I pooched some plot bunnies and behold the result. Possible sequel might come up as well, but for now, please enjoy "Flash of Blue"!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Hetalia.

* * *

><p>He sees her through his apartment window every morning. She sits on the playground outside; on the same swing every day quietly swinging her feet and drawing intricate patterns in the sand below her. He wonders if she is lonely, but don't have the courage to ask her. It's only been a week since he and his brother moved into the area after all.<p>

Their very annoying neighbor, a loud Danish man that just can't leave them alone, tells him that her name is Lily and that she lives in an apartment in the house opposite his with her brother.

Usually she leaves around lunch when a blond man comes and picks her up. He looks just like her, minus the blue ribbon that she always wears.

Summer drags forward and since his brother his never ever home anymore he keeps watching her. Sometimes she swings and blonde hair flies with the wind. He finds that he likes it when she smiles.

* * *

><p>Soon even his not-there-brother notices his interest. 'Go outside and talk to her', he says before going to sleep after yet another late work shift.<p>

The next day it rains.

* * *

><p>He starts counting down the days until school starts again. The annoying Danish neighbor, Mathias, drags him into town to buy him new books. Somewhere in the rather boring bookshop he sees a blue ribbon in blonde hair.<p>

She's there with an older woman, with long brown hair, and she smiles again. He wonders what could possibly be fun with school books, but then again, maybe she's not in school?

Before he's actually able to approach her Mathias drags him away to the next shop.

* * *

><p>Two days before school begins he finds himself outside his own apartment without a key. How on earth that happened he has no idea, but he suspects an evil scheme against him. The stairwell is dark and cold so he takes his chances with the last of summer's warmth and steps out on the backyard.<p>

There are only two swings in the swing set which forces him to take the one next to her. She looks up when he arrives but says nothing.

"…I'm Emil" he says, after a while of silence.

"My name is Lily" she answers and smiles.

"I know" he slips and sounds like a creepy stalker, but she smiles again and thus begin their companionship.

* * *

><p>Changing school in your last year is truly ridiculous, but he knows that it can't be helped. Late as he is for his first class, he still can't help but to see that blue ribbon again and she smiles at him as he passes her bench to sit beside the Chinese boy in the back. He knew he should have come earlier.<p>

As Kaoru shows him around school later he looks for her, since she was whisked away by some friend after class, but there's no hint of blue anywhere.

Last period slows comes to an end only for him to realize that it's once again raining. While he does like the rain, he prefers not getting wet, but suddenly there's that flash of blue again and she holds out an umbrella.

They walk home together in the rain.

* * *

><p>Sadly, the only class he has together with her is English and sometimes he forgets to take notes because he passes her note after note. She always gives him that smile and passes back her answer while the teacher looks away.<p>

Fortunately for him Kaoru is rather good at English (and chemistry for that matter) so he always lets him borrow his notes, after telling him to stop making so obviously love struck eyes at Lily. He punches his friend for that, since he and Lily are not in love, merely friends.

But now he knows that her favorite color is blue, that she hates shrimps, loves cheese fondue and that her family consists of her, her brother and three cousins, and some other distant relatives.

* * *

><p>Kaoru turns out to be a really good friend, despite his crazy little brother that suddenly jumps out and tries to grope you, and they eat lunch together every day.<p>

Sometimes, when Lucas is busy working again, Emil invites Kaoru over and they play video games all night, talking.

* * *

><p>One morning she sits on the swing again and he walks out to sit next to her.<p>

"I wish that people could just stop fighting" she tells him and he knows that she's talking about her brother who's in the military. In that moment he wishes the same as well.

He invites her inside, since it's almost winter now and she looks so cold and lonely.

They drink tea and end up playing video games, were he finds himself utterly defeated by her. Then she gives him a new kind of smile, a rather confidant grin, when she tells him about her crazy older cousin who comes over sometimes and plays with her.

That new, confidant smile stirs something inside him and he's about to reach up and brush some stray hairs out of her face, but suddenly Mathias bursts in and starts shouting about something.

He really is one _annoying _neighbor.

* * *

><p>Winter comes into full bloom and suddenly there's white everywhere. People have snowball fights outside of school and one day he catches her trying to bury her friend in snow. He sneaks up on her and soon the fight is on. When he shows up to class, late and drenched from head to toe, Kaoru just shakes his head and smiles like he knows something that Emil don't.<p>

That day she sits with them during English and he finds it even harder to concentrate on what they're actually supposed to do.

* * *

><p>No matter how fun the snow fight might have been, he finds out a couple of days later that maybe it wasn't worth it as he wakes up with a sore throat and a head filled with cotton.<p>

His brother orders bed rest and Mathias comes to check on him every hour as he glides between the fever dreams.

Somewhere he hears his text message signal but he's too tired to find his phone. They're probably from Kaoru anyways.

When he wakes up from yet another fever dream, he is surprised to see that blue ribbon hovering beside his bed and is sure that he's still dreaming. As she notices his awareness and speaks however he is convinced otherwise.

"I'm sorry, you didn't show up for class and then you didn't reply to my texts either. I got worried"

He tries to sit up but his head is swimming. She smiles that smile and tells him that she should leave anyways.

"Get better soon"

As fever pulls him under once again he can't help but to wonder how she got his number.

* * *

><p>One week later he's back in school and Kaoru greets him at his locker. "Lily asked for your number" the Chinese boy tells him and smiles that infuriating smile again.<p>

As they walk together to class, he can't help to wonder why he feels like he's the happiest man on earth.

* * *

><p>Spring comes around a bit late. It's still a bit too early to be panicking about finals, but everyone can feel it. Graduation is near. The sweet smell of freedom begins to spread.<p>

Lily sits with them during English and when it's raining they always walk home together. He holds the umbrella and she talks about her day.

When he's at home bored he texts her and she comes over. Sometimes they study and sometimes they don't. Usually it depends on whether Lucas is home or not.

One afternoon they kiss.

It's not really an accident. Not really. But when she gives him that confident grin again he can't help himself and just kisses her there and then. It's strange and weird and new but it's still them and he likes it. He thinks he might be in love.

She looks embarrassed for a moment when he pulls back but then she's the one kissing him.

* * *

><p>When he comes to school next day Kaoru takes one look at him and says "It's about damn time".<p>

* * *

><p>They're not sappy romantics who send each other love sick texts, but as her hand brushes his during English they can't help but smile at each other. They walk home together despite the sun shining and she looks so happy when discovering the first spring flowers. Blonde hair flies in the wind, together with that blue ribbon that she still wears and her laughter.<p>

* * *

><p>All is not sunshine and rainbows though. Problems and not only in the form of finals gathers in the horizon.<p>

One in particular; namely Lily's big brother Vash. Lily's very _overprotective_ big brother Vash.

Two months after their relationship has begun Emil finally meets the infamous older brother. It's a meeting that could've gone better. The older blonde tells him very clearly, exactly what will happen to him if he should ever hurt Lily or touch her in any way that she doesn't want. Emil thinks that he's seen slasher movies with less blood.

Fearing for his life Emil flees inside. He doesn't know how much Vash knows about their relationship but he doubts that he would live much longer if he exactly how far he and Lily has really gone.

Mathias, who apparently lives as much in their house as his own now, laughs at him when he confesses about what happened, and he tells Emil about the fate of another young boy who professed liking towards Lily.

For a moment he wonders whether bullet-proof armor would be worth the investment.

* * *

><p>Late nights where they usually played video games and talked about school and life in general now turns into something else. The first time they make love she is scared and so is he. Neither of them has ever done it before and it's trickier than it sounds. They get tangled up in each other and the bed sheets and it gets a bit giggly, but as he enters her and she kisses him he knows one thing. He really loves her.<p>

* * *

><p>They start walking to school together as well but as spring progresses they get less and less time to spend with each other.<p>

School begins to take its toll on them, but when she passes him a note during a brief meeting in a corridor he couldn't care less.

_I love you_

He freezes and just stares at the words with the world's biggest, silliest grin on his face. Kaoru rolls his eyes and pulls him to class, wearing that smile of his again.

When they get home that day he shows her exactly how much he loves her. As they cuddle afterwards though, her cell phone rings and her brother wants to know where she is. She didn't come home after school and he is worried.

As she gets dressed to leave he sneaks up behind her, just like that day in the snow and breathes into her ear.

_I love you_

He ties that blue ribbon into her hair and she leaves.

* * *

><p>One morning he sees her on the swing again. How long ago was that really? He can't remember anymore. A bit worried he goes down to sit beside her.<p>

"I wish that people would just stop fighting" she tells him once again, and he knows that it's her brother who has to leave again. If she just wishes enough, it should eventually happen right?

He takes her hand and wishes with her.

After a while she pulls her hand away and starts swinging. He watches as the wind grabs her hair and gives her speed. Higher and higher she swings and suddenly he sees a streak of blue fly away even further. She gives a light shriek and jumps off mid-swing chasing the blue band.

They watch as the wind takes it and brings it up, up into the tallest tree in the entire yard. Determined she walks forward to the tree and he realizes that she is going to climb it. She cannot however reach even the lowest branch and for the first time since he met her he sees tears in her eyes.

"Lift me" she tells him but he shakes his head before pecking her on her lips and grabs the first branch. It's a bit tricky but he gets up in the tree none the less. She watches as he climbs higher and higher and she's not the only one.

He sees Mathias worried face in a window and in another the old lady who lives next door. He tries to ignore them though and focuses on the blue band near the very top of the tree. As the branches grow thinner he realizes that this is not going to be as easy as it seemed.

"Emil!" she shouts from below "Come down!"

He refuses to look down, knowing that it would weaken his resolve. But she's not the only one shouting at him now.

"Emil! Come down! Now!" his own brother shouts at him from his window, Mathias no doubt having told him about what's happening. But he's almost there now and he stretches with his whole body and touched the ribbon with the tips of his fingers. He steps up just one more branch and he's got it!

It's always harder getting down he realizes. With Lily's worried eyes on him he begins his descent.

He gets down about halfway when suddenly there's no branch below his feet and he's falling and falling and Lily's screaming and then there's nothing.

* * *

><p>As he wakes up the ground is surprisingly soft. He blinks a couple of times in the light, but he's not in his own backyard anymore.<p>

"Idiot" someone to his left tells him and he turns to see Lucas sitting in a plastic chair beside the bed he's laying in.

"Where am I?" he croaks out, since his throat feels like a desert.

"Hospital" his older brother tell him and worry lines is evident on his face.

"Can I have water?"

"Probably not since you have a concussion, but I'll ask the nurse"

Lucas leaves the room and Emil is left to contemplate. He can't really remember why he's here, but as he starts feeling all his body again the first thing he notices is his extreme headache, concussion indeed, and second that his arm is in a cast. His right arm too. Great how's he supposed to write finals now?

A flash of blue enters his mind. Lily.

He climbed a tree to get her ribbon!

Lucas and a nurse come back and she flashes a light in his eyes and he groans because it hurts. But then she gives him water so he can finally drench his thirst.

"Lily" he asks his brother when he finally can speak again "How is she?"

"She's fine. I forced her to go home since it's really late"

He needs to call her, text her at least but his head hurts a lot.

"Sleep" Lucas tells him and pulls a hand gently through his hair.

* * *

><p>The next time he wakes up his headache has dulled quite a bit and he tries to sit up. Lucas is not there, Vash is however.<p>

"What are you doing here?" he mumbles, not caring that it might sound a bit rude. The blonde gives him a glare.

"Are you stupid in some kind of way? My sister is at home crying her eyes out because you tried to act all heroic and climb a tree!"

It takes a while for his brain to process all of that but when it does he feels ashamed. He made Lily cry. Vash isn't finished yet either.

"I could've bought her a new ribbon. I spoke to you before about hurting my sister and you have now! Why did you do something so stupid?"

"But… she was crying" Emil manages to mumble, because Vash is indeed scary when he is mad and Emil does remember their earlier talk rather vividly.

"Don't do it again" the blonde tells him, but for some reason he looks a bit more sympathetic now and then leaves the room.

Emil is left to his own demons.

* * *

><p>Lily visits him the next day, without the ribbon in her hair.<p>

"I'm sorry!" he tells her as she enters the room. She just hugs him and cries telling him that she's the sorry one and that she was silly.

When they're calm again she gives him the ribbon and he ties it into her hair.

"Don't it again" she says and he laughs a bit, that's exactly what your brother said he tells her. She smiles then and tells him that her brother told her to go see him. "I don't know what you said but I think he likes you"

Emil wonders what's worst; being friends or enemies with Vash?

* * *

><p>As he gets out of the hospital he gets strict orders not to do anything physical. Not that he'd be able to anyways with his arm in a cast. It's really annoying sometimes.<p>

He comes home to find that his brother has taken time off to look after him, and while the gesture is sweet they start getting on each other's nerves after a while. He flees to Lily's house now that Vash is a bit more cooperative.

* * *

><p>Two weeks later he's finally back in school trying to catch up all that he's missed. Kaoru dumps a pile of notes on top of him telling him that it should be all. Emil has never been more grateful towards his friend.<p>

Despite the piling schoolwork he keeps his eyes open, searching the corridors for it: A flash of blue.

* * *

><p>They kiss in a corridor one day to the wolf whistles of younger, less mature students. Lily and her friend Madeleine join them for lunch.<p>

Eating with just one arm is hard and he is the subject of a lot of laughter that day.

* * *

><p>When he finally gets rid of the cast, summer is already on their doorstep. He, Kaoru, Lily and Madeleine spends hour after hour studying while the first summer breeze floats in from the window and it's so tempting to just throw away all the books and go outside instead.<p>

But they know that if they survive it, they can do anything. He and Lily smiles at each other over the table knowing that.

While most of the other people in his class talk about graduation they usually mention how much they are going to miss each other and the school and all their friends that are going to move across the country to go to college or the university. Emil knows that he'll most likely not see most them ever again, but that doesn't really matter. He knows that should he lose the one person who means the most to him he'll just have to look for one thing.

His flash of blue.

* * *

><p>In case anyone was wondering:<p>

Emil = Iceland  
>Lily = Liechtenstein<br>Kaoru = Hong Kong  
>Lucas = Norway<br>Mathias = Denmark  
>Vash = Switzerland<br>Madeleine = Fem!Canada

I hope you enjoyed, please feel free to drop a comment.


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